Creative Marketing Using Headshots

Developing and enhancing deeper relationships with your clients is not just a sales function, It’s smart marketing. You want to differentiate yourself, and remain top of mind, and be the go to business to solve your client’s issues. But how do you stand out from the crowd, particularly in a crowded field? By offering unique opportunities and value.

The health benefits industry is huge and differentiating your business can be challenging. So when HAS Bank approached me with a strategy to offer something unique to enhance relationships with their consultants who serve their employers, I was intrigued. Their strategy: provide complementary, high end headshots for anyone at their consultant’s offices while having the opportunity to meet their team and have relevant discussions about what the Bank offers as well as simple relationship building.

After doing some research on the Bank, the fact they created this strategy is not a surprise – here’s a quote from their website: “We continue to challenge the status quo and harness innovation to create value for our customers and clients. We constantly develop new products and services to ensure we meet and exceed evolving health and wealth needs.”

I’ve seen a headshot booth used at a trade show to attract people to a booth – in that model, you’re shooting someone every 1-2 minutes and while they’ll come away with something that is likely better than a selfie or a photo taken on an iphone, it’s not likely to be at the same level as what HSA Bank was envisioning. They wanted headshots that were memorable, of high quality, and would be reflective of the Bank’s branding – meeting/exceeding expectations, offering value to their customers, and delivering an outstanding user experience.

So instead of the “headshot booth” model, we allotted more time per person, reviewed the images with each subject during/after each session, made final selections, and delivered retouched, high quality images. The results? See the images below.

But more importantly, each one of those participants now has a great image for their LinkedIn profile, or other uses – courtesy of HSA Bank, and will remember that likely far longer than if they were to have done something like a lunch and learn. Here’s a quote from Jolene Rambone-Beaulieu , RVP HSA Bank:

“Barry brought incredible energy and professionalism to our headshot event at WTW Boston. He made everyone feel at ease behind the camera, and the results speak for themselves — authentic, confident, and polished shots that people truly loved. The WTW team was thrilled with the event and grateful for the opportunity to offer this experience to their employees. We were lucky to have Barry as part of such a successful day!”

Looking forward to our next gig (already scheduled!).